General Board Business Item #GB-15-0900 Report of the Christian Church in Indiana to the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada 2015 Richard L. Spleth, Regional Minister Monique Crain Spells, Regional Moderator www.indianadisciples.org Indiana Identity Statement The Christian Church in Indiana is a diverse community of congregations called by God to act together in love. We Value... Christ s Table: We extend Christ s welcome to all through worship and communion. Connection and Care: We are called to accompany one another. Shared Wisdom: We gain insight in community. Mutual Ministry: We do our ministry and mission more effectively together. Spiritual Leadership: We nurture each one s call as gifted by the Spirit. We Imagine... a region that engages in networks of diverse relationships which shape our shared mission and ministry. We envision collaborative efforts that assist individuals in expressing their spiritual gifts, equip congregations to serve in their context and give witness to God s hope for a new community. This compels us to allocate our energy and resources in fresh ways and to call forth leadership throughout the region to fulfill this vision. Regional Staff\ Richard L. Spleth, Regional Minister Carolyn Reed, Associate Regional Minister Cheryl Cloar, Associate Regional Minister Lee Yates, Minister of Faith Formation Cynthia Newman, Minister of Clergy Economic Empowerment Kecelyn Santiago, Ministry Associate
2 Sarah Riester, Ministry Associate Larry Brey, Barbee Camp Caretaker New Constitution and Bylaws approved At the 2014 Regional Assembly a new Constitution and Bylaws was adopted ushering in a new governance structure for the Region. A revision had been attempted in 2000 and had failed to gain approval of the Assembly. Long time members of the church cheered the accomplishment of this revision. The revision resulted in a dramatic downsizing of the Regional Board from 55, if it had been fully populated, to 15. In reality it had been difficult in recent years to fully populate the Board because the Area structures that supplied representatives had diminished. In recent years there were typically 25-30 Board members. The smaller size of the Board means that all members are leaned in. The Board is designed to be geographically diverse, gender and age balanced, a majority lay persons, and at least one third persons drawn from our racial ethnic constituencies. A number of no longer functioning committees and commissions were eliminated. Currently there are four main commissions who each have a number of subcommittees: Commission on Ministry, Commission on Faith Formation, Commission on Unity and Witness, and Commission on Resources and Structure. We expect 2015 to be a transition year as we are populating these new organizational groups. Progress on revisioning the focus of the Region Consistent with the Manna Process which assisted the Region in refocusing its staffing and energy toward congregational life, we have continued to make progress in connecting our congregations hoping to create a spider web of relationship across the Region. Several new clergy peer groups have formed. Congregations are finding new ways to partner with one another in areas such as Elder s Retreats, youth rallies, food pantries and creation care efforts. We use our communication tools to lift up the stories of these projects. The three Regional staff ministers with congregational assignments have been encouraged to give congregational and pastor support and care a priority in their schedule. The Region is divided geographically into three parts with each of these staff ministers assuming primary responsibility in their area for Search and Call, conflict resolution, and conversations about growth, decline, and change. We are greatly assisted in this effort by our corps of Regional Elders. The 13 Regional Elders meet quarterly for training and support. They are currently chaired by Bill Bass. Each is assigned approximately 12 congregations and their ministerial staff. The relationships they form are greatly valued. We have two specialized Regional Elders, one assigned to work with our Asian Disciples congregations and the other to work with our correctional chaplains.
3 The vitality of congregations is a concern. Increasingly we see congregations struggling to fund program and mission because compensation for staff and building expenses take too large a percentage of their budget. We are partnering with Hope Partnership to engage several congregations in the New Beginnings process and we are partnering with Church Extension to offer a one day workshop, along with the Episcopal Diocese in Indiana on imaginative uses of church buildings. Congo Partnership In May of 2008, the Christian Church in Indiana began a formal partnership with the Mbandaka District of the Community of Disciples of Christ in Congo (CDCC) and Global Ministries. At the 2012 Regional Assembly, a new partnership agreement was signed for a second five year period to begin in May 2013. As the relationship matures, Indiana s Congo Partnership Task Force continues to seek ways to connect the congregations of Indiana to our partners in Mbandaka through trip exchanges, education, and worship. Since the 2013 General Assembly, the bi-monthly enews of the Christian Church in Indiana has lifted in prayer congregations in Indiana and in the Mbandaka District of Congo. The Congo Task Force in Indiana and the Partnership Committee in Mbandaka also keep in touch and hold each other s ministries in prayer regularly. In June of 2014, six individuals traveled from Indiana to Congo. The pilgrimage was led by Sarah Riester, Ministry Associate for the Christian Church in Indiana, and included a current seminary student, two recently ordained ministers, a teacher, and a general staff person. The group witnessed the work of the CDCC as they minister to the people in Mbandaka through the worship, school, nutritional center, microcredit projects, and health care ministries. The pilgrims and their hosts also spent many valuable hours in worship, prayer, and fellowship together. In addition in the spring of 2014 we sent an Indiana Disciples laywoman, Susan McNeely from Southport Christian Church to Mbandaka for three months to teach English language classes. A variety of congregations and individuals along with Global Ministries collaborated to support Susan s work with our partners. We were honored to help host Reverend Bonanga Eliki, General Minister and President of the CDCC, and Reverend Clement Mputu, Vice-President of the CDCC, when they were in Indianapolis in September during the 2014 Regional Assembly of the Christian Church in Indiana. The 2014 camp offerings were presented to the Disciples in Congo in support of their hymnal and Bible project. An additional financial gift was presented to support their work to address an outbreak of Ebola separate from the Ebola outbreak in western Africa. We also gave thanks for the partnership of Reverend Sandra Gourdet as she retired from the Africa Office of Global Ministries. Without Sandra s leadership and guidance, the partnership would not be where it is today.
4 Conversations with the United Church of Christ The Indiana Region is one of several middle judicatories who created the Indiana Interchurch Center in 1967 where our offices are located. We currently occupy a larger suite in the building than is needed for the size of our current staff. The same situation is true for the Indiana-Kentucky Conference of the United Church of Christ. We are currently in active conversation with the UCC conference about the remodeling of our current space to accommodate the presence of both staffs in our office. This will lead to a reduction in rent for both of us but more importantly it will foster the possibility of increased collaboration in our programming and mission. We expect to accomplish this remodeling and move by the late summer of 2015. Currently we collaborate with the United Church of Christ in educational retreats for licensed and commissioned ministers. We recently held a joint clergy retreat, and we are holding one of our summer camps at the UCC conference center at Merom this summer. There is a regular exchange of Disciples pastors serving UCC congregations and UCC pastors serving in Disciples congregations in Indiana, most often as interim ministers. For a number of years we had a joint Ecumenical Commission. While that commission no longer meets we feel like the conversations they held laid the path for our imagining news ways in which to share our ministries. Lilly Grant for Clergy Economic Empowerment The Indiana Region has received a $50,000 planning grant from the Lilly Endowment to determine if we wish to write a proposal for a $1 million grant to address clergy economic challenges. It is the belief of the Lilly Endowment that pastors who are struggling and anxious about their personal finances cannot then give bold and courageous leadership to their congregations particularly in the area of stewardship. The $1 million grant if approved for submission by our Regional Board in August 2015 and subsequently approved by the Lilly Endowment would provide funds to directly assist ministers in the Region in reducing their personal debt, particularly educational debt, and aid in increasing the financial literacy and competency of our ministers and congregational leaders. Cynthia Newman has been called to the staff to be the Minister of Clergy Economic Empowerment to oversee the planning grant process. Camp and Conference In 2014, the Christian Church in Indiana hosted 14 camps and conferences at three campgrounds, attended by over 500 participants. The most popular camping options remain our intergenerational Grandparent and Me camps and two specialty camps, MAD (Music, Art, and Drama) and CROSS (a sports and recreation themed camp). We also offer a camp on human sexuality, Created to Be Me, for eighth graders. We use Reconciliation Funds as scholarships to help campers from racial and ethnic minority congregations attend our camps so that our camps better reflect the diversity of our church. A taskforce is actively considering whether the Barbee Christian Camp is economically viable and will continue to serve us well into the future. We have had conversations with the Presbytery of Wabash Valley located in northern Indiana about combining program
5 and facilities with them and will locate two of our camps at their campground in 2015 as an experiment. We are also in conversation with the United Church of Christ and will locate one of our camps at their campground in 2015 as well. Many of the school districts in Indiana are shifting toward a "balanced" calendar, thus drastically shortening the summer break for students and making it more difficult to squeeze our camp offerings into a tighter time frame. The General Assembly falling this year in the middle of the camping season and again in 2017 adds another challenge. We remain confident, however, that Outdoor Ministries are vitally important in the Christian Education and spiritual development of our youth and children, and will seek to find creative ways to offer comparable programming in the future assisting our congregations in faith formation. More than likely the solution will be found in ecumenical relationships with our UCC and Presbyterian partners. Finances Finances continue to be a concern for our Region. Along with the denomination as a whole we have experienced a drop in Disciples Mission Fund giving each year over the last decade. Positively we have seen growth in direct giving by individuals to our Annual Fund and are seeking to expand that donor base to offset some of the loss of income we have experienced from our congregations. We have appreciated the financial guidance that has been provided by Treasury Services with whom we have contracted since March 2012 to provide our accounting services. In 2014 we finished in the black for the year despite having a deficit in the operational budget that was approved by the Regional Board. We believe that 2015 will be even more challenging in that regard. The move to reduce rent is one proactive effort to minimize any budget deficits which would diminish reserve funds. The Region receives 40% of the Disciples Mission Fund dollars contributed by Indiana congregations. The remaining amount is divided between General Ministries including the Office of General Minister and President (50%) and our colleges and seminaries (10%). The Indiana Region collectively contributed $1,179,807.53 to all Disciples outreach causes in 2014. Regional Assembly The Regional Assembly met on September 26-27, 2014 at Light of the World Christian Church, Indianapolis under the theme 175: Going Back to the Future. There were 345 registered. The gathering celebrated the 175 th anniversary of the founding of the Region in 1839. Dr. Frank Thomas, preaching professor at Christian Theological Seminary, was the featured speaker at the event. Singer and recording artist Andra Moran opened the gathering with a concert. Rev. Bonanga Eliki and Rev. Clement Mputu from the Disciples Community in the Democratic Republic of the Congo led our closing communion service.
6 The next Regional Assembly will occur in the fall of 2016. Richard L. Spleth Regional Minister Monique Crain Spells Regional Moderator Recommended Action: The General Board receives the report from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Indiana.